National Partnerships

Partners in Education Project Grants for 2007-2008

A

Arizona 1995 Team

This project will apply research-based understanding to the development of an arts integration model called Arts Landing Learning (ALL) adapted from the Kennedy Center’s Changing Education through the Arts (CETA) program. The goal will be to measure student achievement as well as teachers’ professional development gains through this research.

F

Florida 1997 Team

Building on the successful research project of the past year, the Florida 1997 team is taking the work to the next level in scope and impact. The initial group of teachers completed a comprehensive study on the use of poetry in the classroom and its impact on student learning in language arts. The project will expand to provide this opportunity to more teachers and schools. New teacher groups at current participating schools will team with returning teachers to learn strategies for using student poetry writing and performance as a tool for learning. New schools will join the core group to begin this training and will pair with veteran schools for project support. Teaching Artists will provide varied professional development for teachers in poetry writing and performance through classroom workshops and will also provide individual guidance to each teacher involved in the program.

H

Hawai’i 1995 Team

The project will research the impact of school-wide, yearlong professional development in using drama to teach reading across the curriculum. The project will investigate the impact on student achievement in reading comprehension and teacher efficacy when a variety of active learning strategies to develop students’ thinking, problem solving and learning skills are used. The project will take place in all K-5 classes at Pomaika’i Elementary, the new arts-integrated public school on Maui.

I

Indiana 1991 Team

Capacity-Building for Indiana Artists Phase III continues the goal of creating a collaborative group of arts organizations, educational institutions and state agencies to plan, manage and support on-going professional development for Indiana artists working in the PreK-12 school environment by offering a series of artist training sessions built around the Kennedy Center Seminar: Planning Effective Arts-Integrated Residencies for Students. A collaboration among the Indiana 1991 Partners in Education Team, Indiana Arts Commission and Young Audiences of Indiana, this phase of the project seeks to introduce additional Indiana artists to the Kennedy Center model through training in residency development and offer statewide visibility for the project through work with the two other Kennedy Center Partners in Education sites in the state. Key components of the plan include the identification of 15 artists through application, their participation in the Seminar, follow-up meetings and work wit mentors to assist artists in completing proposals.

M

Mississippi 2003 Team

Having gathered data that supports the thesis that increased training time boosts teacher comfort in implementing arts integrated teaching strategies, the Greenville Arts Council will continue to expand its highly successful Musically Moving Math professional development program. In the coming year, the Greenville Arts Council will facilitate the creation of a year-long curriculum map of Musically Moving Math strategies that align with the Mississippi Math Framework, continue to cultivate program graduates as peer mentors, and introduce a new group of educators to this powerful teaching tool.

Montana 1991 Team

This project will support a commitment by the Montana 1991 team to provide professional development courses to train teachers and staff at Graff Elementary in Laurel, MT to create a foundation for whole-school reform. The courses are modeled after the Kennedy Center’s Changing Education Through the Arts (CETA) program and will utilize Kennedy Center Workshop Leaders. The first year of this three-year project will focus on building teachers’ knowledge and skills in integrating the arts into the language arts curriculum to improve students’ reading comprehension and fluency. The series of sequential professional development workshops, classroom demonstrations and arts coaching will be taught by Kennedy Center Workshop Leaders Karen Erickson, Marcia Daft and Rosalind Flynn. A Kennedy Center consultant, Deb Brzoska, will assist the project in developing arts-integrated curriculum and methods of action research as tools for student assessment and project evaluation.

N

Nebraska 2001 Team

The project will support the fourth year of the professional development and research efforts of Nebraska’s Partners in Education Umon Hon Cultural Arts Program (UCAP). The project will build upon research efforts started in the previous year including the focus groups and administrator survey, while creating a plan for program development that is based on teachers’ needs. Increased emphasis will be placed on research as part of professional development, including a researcher to help teachers develop self-reflective practice and build their efficacy with identifying creative learning behaviors in the classroom. Continued efforts for “in-classroom follow-ups” with Teaching Artists and teachers will allow for co-planing and co-teaching opportunities. The Nebraska 2001 team will continue its partnership with the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Alliance for Arts Education.

North Carolina 2001 Team

This professional development project focuses on the use of Kennedy Center resources to increase the capacity and quality of Teaching Artists in three major North Carolina regions through an intensive mentor and coaching program. Through a matching grant funded by the North Carolina Arts Council, these regional Teaching Artists are slated to participate in the Kennedy Center’s Artists in Education Seminars in October of 2007 and January 2008. The NCBPAC will lead a collaborative effort involving regional arts councils to select a group of mentors, train these mentors to follow the Teaching Artists by providing mentors to observe and coach, and conduct an analysis of mentors’ impact on Teaching Artists.

O

Ohio State-Based Collaboartive Initiative

The Ohio Partners in Education teams and state-level partners will retain an Ohio researcher familiar with Teaching Artist professional development to assess the overall effectivenesss of the Ohio Teaching Artist Training conducted over the past four years including a systematic evaluation of the process and materials. The teams will work with the researcher and a project writer to prepare a final report and an article(s) for publication that focus on both the process of the Teaching Artist training and its effect on the Teaching Artists. (e.g., Teaching Artists Journal and Kennedy Center Education Department UPDATE.)